The CIA has compiled a fact book at https://www.cia.gov/library/publications/the-world/factbook/ . The 5 countries with the greatest number of users of the internet are as follows:
1. China approx. 389 million
2. United States approx. 245 million
3. Japan approx. 99 million
4. Brazil approx 76 million
5. Germany approx 65 million
The five countries with the greatest number of internet hosts also show that the first five countries in the lead are the same with the exception of the addition of Italy in the top three slots and China falling to number 6 overall. Only China, United States and Brazil are also top leaders in overall population count.
After compiling a list of the similarities and differences of each of these five countries in a recent assignment, I put together a list of ideas and conclusions based on my own thoughts and opinions.
ETHNIC, CULTURAL AND RELIGIOUS:
The study of the top first five countries which are top internet users indicates some items which might signal marketing information to companies who would like to sell their products to these countries. Most obvious would be ethnic and cultural differences in language and religion and overall cultural practices such as the one-child policy of China or the liberal immigration policies of Germany and the United States. In marketing, this might affect such ideas as making your website adaptable to English, Chinese, Japanese, Portuguese and German. By studying these countries, one might not sell distinctly Muslim articles, since there would be such a small percentage of Muslim users in these five markets. It might also preclude any criticism of Roman Catholic policy or Buddhist policy due to the high number of users who prescribe to those religions in these five countries. For example, birth control might not be able to be sold in Brazil where strong Roman Catholic policy might prevent the purchase and use of this tool.
One other detail highlighted in the CIA fact book of interest might indicate that drug manufacturer’s of HIV drugs might concentrate their marketing on U.S., Brazil and China, while ignoring Germany and Japan due to a lesser degree of HIV infection in those countries. The small occurrence of that disease may be attributable to cultural mores in those countries.
INFRASTUCTURE VS. USER POTENTIAL
The fact that most of China’s population lives in a rural setting and that only 15 million internet servers are in existence compared to United States 439 million internet servers, might indicate that while their population exceeds ours, their infrastructure is still focused only in urban areas and much less of the total population can actually access the internet. The potential for continued growth in Chinese use of the internet is huge if the Chinese internet infrastructure were expanded. Since they have almost one billion more people in their country as compared to the United States it is possible that this number will grow. Despite the current large number of users in China, the fact that software copy-write laws are non-existent means that software market is soft despite the vast number of users. Ethics and legal means to thwart this piracy has not been successful and software manufacturers have been largely stumped as to how to overcome this. It appears that the Chinese out use the internet, but per capita use is small in comparison to the United States. While the United States population is 99% literate as is Germany and Japan, China falls short at 91% and Brazil lags behind at 88% literate. This may indicate that those markets will be growing as the population ages and/or continues to educate their citizenry.
Since most users of the internet are urban users except in Japan and China, the market will most likely benefit from urban market trends such as shopping, mass transit, universities, manufacturing and shipping. Although the economic needs in rural areas outweigh the urban user’s needs, the population in rural communities is not great thereby offering less incentive to court the rural user. I could never understand why a major retailer would refuse to ship to Hawaii and ignore our market base entirely, but now I understand it better. The added cost of shipping here is not in proportion to the number of Hawaii internet shoppers.
POPULATION GROWTH
When looking at the population growth potential, it is clear that Brazil may grow faster in internet use due to population birth rate and because 2.19 children are born per woman. This may indicate a shift towards more internet use in Brazil in the future; particularly because their aged population is only 6% compared to the high of 22% in Japan and their youth population is 26% as compared to the low of 13% in Japan. In addition, the median age in Brazil is 28 years compared to that of 44 years in Germany and Japan and 35 and 37 yrs. in China and the United States respectively.
It seems likely that Japan’s usage may drop due to the high concentration of older population in Japan and the slow growth rate which is 216 overall of 239 countries. The same might be said of Germany due to an aging population growth of minus .06% growth and a declining birth rate.
Interestingly, the female aging population over 65 is greater than that of the male population in all five countries. In Japan, the female outlives the male by many years on average. It would seem to me that this indicates the purchasing power of older females would be very strong worldwide and especially in Japan.
EDUCATION
Another predictor of market changes may be due to education rates in countries and the amount of money spent to educate the population. The total years of education in China is only 12 as opposed to 15-17 in the United States and 16 in Germany. The amount of money spent per GDP on education is extremely small in China (1.9%), whereas Brazil and the United States are spending 5.2% and 5.5% respectively. This may indicate that when marketing to China, the language used should be more simplistic and not at a college level. That only applies if all assumptions are correct and if the years spent in Chinese education were equal to or less than our own interpretation of what a year of study entails. While Brazil outspends Germany and Japan, their GDP is lower and this translates to the United states spending almost 10 times more than Brazil to educate their children while spending approximately 4 times more than China, Germany and Japan per student. This may indicate that companies marketing educational games, toys and systems may be more important in the future in the United States but most certainly in the other four countries to help them achieve parity. And, this also precludes believing that expenditure per student equals a resulting education.
IN SUMMARY:
Retailers and Wholesalers who seek to use global markets to sell their products need to study and research the implied market before entering the market. They will do well to also study the laws and ethics in a country and find a product which suits the target market culture, ethnicity, language, age, population growth predictors and educational abilities.
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